On the day appointed for Mittens to meet up with Michael, she gives him a call to see if there's anything preventing him from showing up at the rendezvous place he picked.

((OOC: Leaving it up to Michael's player to pick a place and time of day he'd want to meet with her. ))

Michael answers his phone with a quick,"'ello," and hears that it is Mittens calling about the "interview," which of course he forgot about.

"Sorry Mittens, it slipped my mind," he said, thinking of when would be good. "I have work in a bit at Caramel Lounge. Why not come by and we can talk during my breaks." He figures his boss wont mind. As an after though he says,"Oh, it is a more upscale place than the bars around here, so I'd say dress up a bit. At least so the bouncer doesn't give you a problem."

He hangs up and finishes getting ready. Grabbing his guitar he puts it gently in its case, then gets dressed. Charcoal grey slacks with a dark blue button down shirt, sleeves rolled up, of course. He heads out and walks down the block to the Caramel Lounge.

The Caramel Lounge is a place where some of the more entitled young adults come at night. At times it is a night club with a dj and terrible rap music, but tonight was Michael's night. A night of piano and guitar music that will have you dancing a slow dance all night. Tonight the lights are down low with candles on each table. The colors are deep reds and blues and many shadows.

Michael stops and talks to the bouncer. "Hey Josh, a lady is stopping by later on to talk to me. Don't give her a hard time and just let her in."
Josh looked indignantly at him and said,"What do I look like? How many ladies do I turn away? Only the freaks that's all."
By freak Michael knew he mean mutants and he narrowed his eyes to glare at Josh. Josh, who was much bigger than him, gulped. "Oh so she is a, ah , different sort of person. Well, i..I... 'll just send her in when she gets here."

Mittens answers Michael with an "I understand.  I'll be there" and heads off.  She arrives carrying a briefcase, dressed professionally, ( http://swatkats.info/wp/wp-con...screenshots/0157.jpg ) and thusly apparently has little problem with the bouncer other than being stared at.  She waves to Michael when she sees him, and waits patiently for him to join her or to signal for her to join him.

Michael sees Mittens as she walks in but is in the middle of playing The Sacrifice. [OOC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Su8LXNS16A ] As he finishes and bows to the clapping, he motions to someone that he is going on break. With that someone flips on some classic rock music. Michael makes his way over to Mittens at the table she is at and sits down, waiting for her to start.

Mittens bobbed her head to the rhythm of the music with a satisfied smile on her face, occasionally allowing her eyes to close so she could focus on the flow of the music.  She stood from her seat to clap vigorously for Michael when he finished.

"Fantastic!" she commends when he approaches, "That was beautiful!  Very heartfelt!"

She takes a seat when Michael does, and gazes at him with an admiring smile.

"Your wife is one lucky lady," she compliments, hoping she didn't just put her foot in her mouth.

((OOC: Before the meeting, Mittens would have done a quick google news search of Michael Reaver and may have found articles about his tragic past.  Up to you what she found.  But I figured the bit about losing his wife to cancer would not have been mentioned. ))

At the mention of his wife, Michael seemed to be looking into a far off place. A sad smile came over his face as he said,"When it came to love she was very lucky." He still had a distant look but seemed to be paying more attention again to Mittens. He let it hang that he was using past tense.

(OOC: You would have found out about his father and most likely mother. As for Lucy, you may have found the obituary, since she had his last name. Up to you if you want to use that or not)

Mittens had thought that the wedding ring meant a happy ending to his tragic beginning, but alas...  She was a lucky lover.  Lucy was...  Must... not... thinksillythoughts...  Lovely lucky Lucy liked licking lime lollipops!  Couldn't help it.

Mittens forces her mind back to reality and gives Michael a sad empathic look.

"Oh I'm so sorry!" she says in all sincerity, leaning forward with pleading eyes, "I'd read about your parents...  Didn't know you'd lost your wife too.  That's so sad!  What happened to her?  Car accident?"

Mittens wonders if there was a child involved.  And if the child is still alive.

"Thank you," he said still a bit sullen. "No it wasn't a car accident. It was cancer and we caught it far to late."

Surprisingly he didn't seem to be acting to uncomfortable for one talking about the death of a loved one. If anything, he looks more relieved to finally be talking about it.

Mittens draws all the wrong conclusions from Michael's body language.  Why would he be relived when she asked if his wife was killed in a car accident?  Is it because there were allegations of foul play?  Oh.  Cancer.  Caught too late.  Then she starts figuring out what must be going on.  He blames himself.  Thinks it's his fault she's dead.  Natural enough from what she's heard about the steps of grieving, but...

Now Mittens feels at a loss.  She's no grief counselor.  She's read up on how to set up a 501(c)3 NPO, conflict resolution, business presentation, employee motivation, etc., etc., but nothing like this.  Her mind falls back to the things she's heard in church.  What comfort is there in scripture?  What is it they keep saying at funerals?  The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away?  Not very comforting.  Mittens says a quick silent prayer before scooting closer to Michael, being careful not to touch him, figuring he'd rather her not.

"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted," she whispers in a broken voice as a tear rolls down her cheek, "and saves those who are crushed in spirit."

She sniffles, grabs a napkin to blow her nose on, and continues.

"So very sorry for your loss, Michael."

She's at a loss for what else to say.

Michael looked a bit shocked as Mittens spoke. "You know your psalms," he says quietly, while his eyes water up. He touches the mantra beads on his arm. "Saying the psalms are part of my mantra. They help keep me sane in this crazy world. Thank you Mittens, really."

He wipes his eyes with his handkerchief before looking at Mittens again. "So You most likely didn't come here to listen to my sob story. What can I do for you?"

"Your welcome, Michael," Mittens answers softly, wiping her own eyes, "Glad to hear about your faith.  I'm Christian too if you hadn't guessed.  Actually...  I kinda did come to listen to your story.  It's the most important part of what I do.  Really.  So what you can do for me?  Well...  you can tell me more."

She turns her eyes to look directly into his expectantly.

Michael seemed a bit surprised. He had been expecting, well actually he had no idea what he had expected, but this wasn't it. "More about me huh? I'm not usually one to talk about myself, but if you really want to know, I guess I can tell you some stuff."

He took a sip of his drink while he thought of where to start. "How about the story of how I met Lucy? Let's see I was a junior at college and found myself wanting to learn something physical. I ended up at a dojo not to far from school, in which Lucy happened to work. I had seen her around campus but we had no classes together. I told her i knew a little and she asked me to show her, so we sparred. Man did I get my butt kicked," he said with a bit of a laugh, his eyes back in the past. "We laughed as we finished up our sparring and that was it, we were inseparable from then on."

Michael goes on to some amusing stories during school and after they graduated. He talked about their wedding and honeymoon (the G rated parts only) and some of the problems they had had finding a house. Then his face turned sullen again and he said quietly,"And then it all came crashing down. I'm not sure how she had managed to not notice it or if for some reason it just never bothered her, but when she finally went to the doctors, we were told it was to late. She still went through the chemo, but it only made her weaker. In the end, I just held her as both our lives ended." He was staring at his glass slowly spinning the contents. "I've made due, continued living because I know she would never forgive me if I ended it myself. Don't worry, I'm not suicidal, at least not anymore. At this point I just need to do something for someone else. This gig pays fine, but does nothing for me anymore. I joined the citizen patrol because I want to actually do something with my life."

Mittens nibbles on her lower lip, a sad smile on her face as she listens to Michael's story.  She giggles a little when Mr. Tough Guy admits to being pummeled by a girl.  She idly wonders if that's how Timothius will fall in love.  As if I needed another reason to avoid romance like the plague, she thinks to herself, Even if everything works out and you're a perfect match, Murphey's Law demands that something else tragic happens.  Mittens may be Miss Positive on most anything else, but not romance.

"Well of course she'd want the best for you," Mittens agrees with a nod, "And so do I.  I dabble a bit in martial arts myself.  Currently taking Ju-Jitsu to be more specific.  I'm curious what style it was that you and Lucy studied together.  As for making a difference for somebody else..."

She reaches into her briefcase and takes out a newspaper article about the water monster with the huge title "Superheroes Save the Day!" and slides it toward Michael.

"I believe the proof is already in the pudding you're in good company.  Don't suppose Lucy was a mutant...  Did you know about your ability when you met?"

Michael didn't look to surprised that Mittens did some martial arts. She was hyper and energetic, it made sense. "She taught akido and I learned a lot from her, but I also started doing judo on the side. My grappling always needs work," he said with a grimace.

He picks up the paper as it is passed and reads the article. He is relieved to know that the kids at least are competent. We'll see about the rest.

"If she was, she didn't know, but she did know that I was," he said taking another drink. "I have known for quite a while now that I was, but Lucy actually helped me to use it easier. Meditation helped in order to gain some control of the teleporting. Lucy also suggested using a focus, which works much better." He held up his arm showing the mantra beads. "I use these as my focus. Basically they get ported first then I follow."

"Nice," Mittens answers, trying hard to suppress her enthusiasm.  She's always wanted a shot at Aikido, and it's the perfect art to start the members of the Citizen Patrol on.  She's heard it's favored by the police.

"Heh... Meditation and focus are two things I could sure use.  I'm sure the rest of the team could use 'em too.  I'm very impressed she was able to figure out a way for you to more effectively use your ability.  Speaking of which.  You volunteered to be team combat strategist?  I'm curious if the info packet I handed you was along the lines of what you had in mind."

"Yeah Aikido is a lot of work, but it definitely is the best way to learn the non-damaging take downs," Michael says to her. "As for the meditation, if anyone was interested I wouldn't mind running through a few things that normally help. Maybe at the next meeting."

When she asked about the strategy packet she had given him, he gave it some thought. There had been some helpful things in there, but there was a lot of work that needed to be done. "I'd need to talk to everyone to see what they would be comfortable doing, as well as to see what else they know outside of what power they have. Someone could have a great combat power, but if they don't actually know how to fight it wont help them."

"Good point, good point," Mittens answers with repeated nods, "Big as she is, somehow I get the feeling Haalima isn't much for Krav Maga style combat.  Maaaybe she'd go for Aikido.  And the others..."

She trails off briefly but just as quickly shakes it off and refocuses.  She takes on a serious tone.

"I've noticed you're the strong silent type.  But you want to make a difference.  And volunteered for a leadership type role.  Just how much of a leadership role are you willing to take on?  For example...

"Well suppose things had gotten violent with those protesters and we were forced to defend ourselves?  For the police, they have a clearly defined rank structure to keep such thing as conflicting orders from getting people killed.  The Citizen Patrol does not have that...  Yet.

"I can tell you right now, that would have been a disaster.  I would have told everyone to retreat into the building.  Liberty may have ignored me.  Then the others would jump into the fray to protect her.  Our powers being what they are... someone could have died that day.  Heck, I wouldn't doubt Sarah could kill someone with her bare hands, powers or not.  I think everyone would be quicker to obey your orders in combat, Michael.  You just have that... air of authority.  Respect."